My PracticeAdvice
Like most other members of the patent bar, I advise patent and trade mark attorneys, solicitors and in-house legal advisers on such questions as:

Can an invention be patented? Has a patent been infringed? Can we counterclaim for revocation?

Can a sign be registered as a trade mark? Is this trade mark registration invalid or can it be revoked? Has this trade mark been infringed?

Is this design registration valid? Has this registered design been infringed? or

Has this copyright, design right or right in a performance been infringed?

I also advise business owners and managers, venture capital, business angel and other investors, their accountants and other advisers under the Licensed or Public Access Rules on matters that do not require the intervention of an attorney, solicitor or other professional intermediary. Typical matters might be identifying the optimum legal protection for a new intellectual asset or on assessing the strength of a patent or patent portfolio.

Contentious work
I advise, settle pleadings and other documents and represent parties to patent, registered or registered Community design disputes before the Patents Court, Intellectual Property Enterprise Court ("IPEC") and hearing officers in the Intellectual Property Office. I provide similar services to parties to trade mark, copyright, unregistered design right, unregistered Community design, breach of confidence, passing off and other IP disputes in IPEC (including the small claims track), the Intellectual Property list of the Chancery Division and the Chancery County Courts.

I also help to resolve disputes through direct negotiation and mediation.

Non-Contentious Work
I advise and assist parties to complex or sensitive business negotiations such as bespoke software development projects and technology transfers. When a deal is agreed I draft an agreement or other instrument that reflects the parties' intentions

I also draft instruments that meet or my client's requirements such as standard terms and conditions of business, standard procurement terms, privacy statements, website access terms, end user licences and non-disclosure agreements.

Dispute Resolution Services
I am also arbitrator, mediator and domain name panellist. I sit on the WIPO, Consensus Mediation and other panels.

Start-ups and Other Small Businesses Over the years I have advised and represented many small and medium enterprises ("SME"). Through such work I have accumulated a great deal of knowledge and acquired considerable experience of their needs. Though the law applies to them as it does to all businesses they often require quite different advice than the advice that would be given to a larger entity.

For instance, it would be pointless to advise a start-up to take on an opponent with a much longer pocket in the Patents Court unless it had previously taken out intellectual property insurance or had some other funding for its claim. I therefore encourage start-ups and other small businesses to consider before-the-event insurance when they seek advice on the optimum legal protection.

If a business comes to me after a dispute has arisen I introduce them to alternative dispute resolution forums such as the Intellectual Property Office's Opinions service or the IPEC small claims track.

I distilled my knowledge and experience of advising and assisting SME in "Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights: A Concise Guide for Businesses, Innovative and Creative Individuals" which was published by Gower in 2009. Since I wrote that book new Rules and Practice Directions have been introduced to IPEC formerly known as the Patents County Court (see my article "New Patents County Court Rules" 31 Oct 2010) including a new small claims track (see "Patents County Court - the New Small Claims Track Rules" 20 Sep 2012). I am therefore updating my book and plan to deliver the manuscript for a second edition to my publisher shortly.

I also run the Inventors Club blog and Linkedin group. I set up and chair inventors clubs in Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield. I run monthly IP clinics at Barnsley Business and Innovation Centre in Yorkshire and Middlesex University in London.

Pupillage
I spent the first 6 months of my pupillage in the chambers of Roy Beldam QC (later Lord Justice Beldam) at 1, Paper Buildings under Roger Cox (later His Honour Judge Cox) where I learned about crime, family, personal injuries and clinical negligence. I spent the second 6 with Robert Reid (later His Honour Judge Reid QC) at 9 Old Square and it was there that I received my first brief. I represented the Bank in Williams & Glyn's Bank Ltd. v Brown in the Dartford County Court and actually got an order for possession though it was reversed on appeal in the Court of Appeal and House of Lords. That appeal is better known as Williams & Glyn's Bank Ltd v Boland[1981] AC 487, [1980] UKHL 4, [1980] 2 All ER 408 with which it was conjoined.

8 Old Square
Between 1978 and 1982 I practised general chancery law (which included some intellectual property) from 8 Old Square, Lincoln's Inn.

VISA
In 1982 I was appointed as legal advisor to VISA International for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Banks were developing electronic funds transfer systems which gave rise to many new legal issues on such matters as authentication, competition, privacy, software development transactions, telecommunications regulation and trans-border data flow. I wrote a number of articles and other publications including "Electronic Funds Transfer: the Emerging Legal Issues" for the Law Society Gazette in 1984 and contributed sections on computer contracts, data protection and electronic banking to Atkin and the Encyclopedia of Forms and Precedents. I also addressed The International Bar Association in Vienna in 1984 and the International Chamber of Commerce conference on electronic banking in Madrid in 1986.

Manchester
Between 1985 and 1995 I practised from Bridge Street Chambers in Manchester. Although I accepted all kinds of chancery work I tended to get more intellectual property work and computer contract work than anything else. I joined the Society for Computers and Law and set up a Northern Branch for the Society, the first outside London which I chaired for its first 4 years. I also served on the Council of the Society.

New Court
One of my first clients in Manchester was the National Computing Centre. The company solicitor encouraged me to return to London and introduced me to New Court which claimed to be the oldest patent set. Between 1988 and 1995 I practised in New Court and Bridge Street concurrently. During that time I was instructed in three important cases::

I also qualified as a Fellow of the Charted Institute of Arbitrators in 1992.

NIPC

In May 1997 several members of New Court opened an associated set in Lancaster Buildings known as Northern Intellectual Property Chambers ("NIPC"). NIPC was the first and so far only specialist intellectual property set outside London. While I was at New Court I was instructed in the following cases:

I also qualified as a mediator in 2002 and joined the WIPO arbitration, mediation and domain name panels.

4-5 Gray's Inn Square
On 11 Feb 2013 I was invited to join 4-5 Gray's Inn Square, one of the leading commercial and public law sets in London which is rapidly developing a following in intellectual property, technology, media and competition law. I have appeared in Robert Wilson and Enviromax Ltd BL O/403/15 Daletech Electronics Limited v Jemella LimitedBLO/501/14 27 Nov 2014 on entitlement to a patent and Cranleys TMBL 0-354-14 31 July 2014, an appeal to the Appointed Person and Ross v Playboy Enterprises International, Inc [2016] EWHC 1379 (IPEC) (13 June 2016) on challenging UDRP decisions in the English courts while I have been in these chambers.

Publications and Presentations In addition to Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights I have contributed to a number of other works and published many articles. As well as this and the Inventors' Club blogs also keep IP Yorkshire, IP North West and NIPC-Gulf. Particulars of those talks and presentations appear on my Publications and Presentations pages respectively.

Interests I do have a life outside the law.

I live near Holmfirth, a beautiful little town in the Yorkshire Pennines where the BBC set the long running comedy series Last of the Summer Wine. There is an almost endless variety of lovely walks and drives in the vicinity. I have lived in the Holme Valley for nearly 30 years and still discover something new and wonderful almost every day.

I am interested in computing and keep abreast with science and technology. I also love the arts, particularly dance, drama, film, music and painting. I subscribe to the Huddersfield Choral Society. I enjoy all sorts of dance, especially ballet (about which I blog in Terpsichore). I still attend ballet class at Northern Ballet and the University of Huddersfield. I am often in the audience at the National Media Museum in Bradford and am a frequent visitor to Salts Mill in Saltaire and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield.

I try to quote a fixed fee for court, conferences and paperwork before wherever possible and I will always agree a charging basis before doing the work so that the client knows exactly how much he or she will have to pay.

Since the 31 Jan 2013 the basis upon which barristers accept instructions from solicitors has changed. I contract with solicitors, patent and trade mark attorneys on the terms that the Commercial Bar Association has negotiated with the City of London Law Society.

For clients who come to me directly I am bound by the Public Access Rules I contract in accordance with the model letters prepared by the Bar Council.

If you want a quotation for a piece of work please fill in my enquiry form. You can also email my clerk or call him on +44 (0)20 7404 5252.

This was an appeal by the National Guild of Removers & Storers ("NGRS") against an award of £1,275 damages in its favour by District Judge Vary for passing off. By dismissing that appeal, His Honour Judge Hacon seems to have settled a 7 year controversy as to what should be the correct measure of damages for what is often an inadvertent misrepresentation of continued membership of the NGRS by a removal or storage business that no longer wishes to remain a member of that guild.

In Caspian Pizza Ltd and Others v Shah and Another [2015] EWHC 3567 (IPEC) (9 Dec 2015) Judge Hacon dismissed a claim for trade mark infringement and passing off. The trade marks relied upon were the device mark that appears above and the word mark CASPIAN. The judge declared the word mark invalid because the defendants had run a restaurant called "CASPIAN" in another part of the country which constituted an "earlier right" within the meaning of s.5 (4) of the Trade Marks Act 1994. However, he did not declare the device mark invalid on the ground that the defendants had no goodwill in the running chef logo. I blogged about the case in Caspian Pizza Ltd and Others v Shah and Anotheron 24 Jan 2016.

The claimants appealed to the Court of Appeal against the invalidation of the word mark on the grou…